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Growing up in Toronto, most of my summertime memories are of me up at my family cottage on Lake Kamaniskeg in Northern Ontario. Our family has been going up there my entire life so the cottage has become kind of a second home to me and my sister. After trekking around the world I can definitely say we have some of the most beautiful fresh water lakes on Earth with gorgeous boreal forests.

We’re on a side of the lake with only six other cottages with a roller-coaster styled 1km long road which makes our location pretty remote. At night we like to sit out on the dock and gaze up at the brilliant night sky filled with thousands of stars from the Milky Way, without any light pollution it’s a breathtaking view. I love kayaking and close by to us is the “Madawaska Kanu Centre” where we get out on the whitewater. The nearby township of Combermere has Valley Market self-titled “Center of the Universe” (haha) serves huge scoops of Kawartha Dairy ice cream which is totally worth canoeing 7 km down a river to get. There’s also a few good hiking trails with some nice climbs in the area which also make for some good mountain biking. About an hours drive is the amazing Algonquin Provincial Park which has over 2400 lakes and 12oo km of streams and rivers within the park which makes it a campers and hikers paradise. Although, the area (Hastings Highlands) is relatively pretty quite compared to elsewhere in Ontario cottage country, won’t always be that way as cottages are slowly migrating over from the Muskokas and up from the Kawartha Lakes. If you’re visiting Central Canada I would definitely recommend renting a cottage or camping in Algonquin for a few nights to experience the amazingness of Canadian cottage country! Check out these photos below!

Finally back updating the theTravelled! I’ve changed the look of the site.. let me know if you like the changes!!

It’s been a while since I was in Chicago, but, reminiscing here I found my short time there incredible! I’ve been here once before for Lollapalooza in 2009 which was one of the best music fests I’ve ever attended.

Chicago has many similarities to where I live, Toronto. Chicago, however, has a certain personality that is so lovable. First the city is beautiful especially the public spaces around Grant Park by the lake filled with interesting art and architecture doting the inner-city green-space. The “Cloud Gate” aka the “Bean” is a beautiful sculpture next to the Chicago Art Institute… a giant mirrored.. bean… very photo-graphical. And beyond that the classic skyscrapers densely standing tall along long stretches of the downtown. In my previous visit I stayed in South Chicago which was pretty ghetto and felt a bit unsafe at times. This time we opted for a downtown hotel… which worked out much better. One of my Chi-town recommendations is to visit the neighborhoods such as Wicker Park, Uptown with Monterose, where there are countless sports bars and jazz/blues clubs. You’ll automatically feel like a local and will definitely prove to be the best way to connect with the city. Toronto, with all its similarities to Chicago is much the same.. I always recommend visiting the neighborhoods like Queen West West, Roncesvalles Village, Leslieville, or Little Italy to get a feel for how people live and work and party!

Let me know some cool parts of Chicago and I can include them in the next post!